


Our Only Hope

by CytherVapora



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/F, F/M, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Jinchuuriki haruno Sakura, Mokuton User Haruno Sakura, Slow Burn, Strong Haruno Sakura, Time Travel Fix-It, inosaku
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:40:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27832408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CytherVapora/pseuds/CytherVapora
Summary: After Kaguya kills Sasuke and Kakashi, Naruto transfers Yin Kurama to her and dies doing so. Then she meets the Sage of Six Paths himself, entrusting her with the mission to go to the past and change things so the outcome of the war will be different but reveals that important events will still happen and a seal is cursed upon her. How well will Sakura cope?
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Tsunade, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 26
Kudos: 154





	1. Team 7!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not the biggest Naruto nerd so forgive me if I get anything wrong. I'm also changing how Sakura views Sasuke and she's not in love with him by the time the war happens in her timeline, the new timeline will be Inosaku. If you don't like that, sorry.

Sakura screams as Sasuke drops to the ground on his knees, his broad back facing her, his white shirt now stained in blood. He turns his head and makes eye contact with her, his rinnegan piercing her soul. He smiles slowly, a sad one and then he's gone. His body flops to the ground with a loud thud. 

Naruto cries and so does she, they run. But there's only so many places they can run from the mother of all shinobi. Kakashi covers them as they form another plan, without Sasuke, their original route was severed and the only way was to defeat Kaguya by force. 

The impossible. 

Kakashi dies next, stabbed in the stomach by Black Zetsu, Sakura had her back turned and couldn’t sense the killing intent in time and it cost her their sensei’s life. 

He yells at them to run, activating his mangekyou sharingan and teleporting himself away with his killer, giving them one last chance. 

They don’t get far at all, Naruto collapses, dragging her down with him. 

“Naruto come on! We have to keep going!”

Naruto grunts in pain and grabs onto her wrist, to stop her from moving. “Sakura-chan listen!”

Sakura tears up and shakes her head. “You can’t leave me alone!” 

“I don’t have-” He coughs up blood and grips her wrist harder. “The old man told me to do this if me and Sasuke fail… you’re our last hope.”

He forces her to sit with him, opening her palm. Sakura watches as he draws a seal on her left palm with his blood, similar to the one he has on his stomach whenever the Nine-tails is released. It takes her a second to realise what he was doing and she tries to yank her hand away but his hold is unforgiving as he continues to draw. 

“Naruto you can’t! You’ll die! You can’t do this!”

Naruto grins widely. “I’ll always be with you, Sakura-chan. Kurama will help you, you guys will be great friends… you’re both so angry all the time haha….” His smile falls and his eyes grow tired. “Old man Six Paths will tell you how you can save all of us… We’ll meet in another lifetime.” 

And with that, he transfers Kurama into Sakura, every last bit of the Nine-tails chakra is extracted and he slumps over Sakura’s weeping body. 

“No….nononono!” Sakura grits her teeth and shakes Naruto’s body. “Wake up! You can’t leave me here! You can’t-” She looks up and she's in a different place. It’s stark white, she couldn’t tell the ceiling from the floor and Naruto was gone from her lap. Instead, in front of her was a cloaked figure, floating while they were sitting in lotus position. The man had horns protruding from his head, two rinnegans and his kimono cloak had distinct magatama patterns, like the ones she saw on Naruto. 

This must be the Sage of Six Paths.

“Sakura Haruno. Pupil of Tsunade Senju, the last surviving shinobi.” He calls. His voice reminded Sakura of the third Hokage, all knowing and wise.

“Where am I?” She asks, and she stands up so she can look at him with height. “Where is Naruto?”

“Naruto has died, transferring Kurama to you. Young Shinobi, you have yet to rest, there is much to do and only you can carry out this final attempt at stopping my mother from destroying the world we love.”

Sakura clenches her fists. “How well do you know me?! I’m useless compared to my teammates! I can’t carry such a burden! I’ll fail!”

Hagoromo shakes his head. “You underestimate your own will of fire. You yearn for the world to be peaceful, you desperately want victory. That is what will drive you forward. The result of your hard fruitful work will be worth all the while. All you have to do is believe in yourself and the power Naruto has entrusted you with. Kurama!” He shouts. 

Sakura flinches as a bigger, more forbidding presence forms behind her, casting a massive shadow onto the white scenery. 

“Gramps.” The fox greets him.

She turns around and lifts her head up to see Kurama sitting behind her. He grins a toothy smile at her, she gulps at the sheer size of his teeth. She wonders if Naruto was ever scared of Kurama. 

“Sakura Haruno will be your new partner, the two of you will work together to change the outcome of the future.” The Sage weaves hand signs so fast, Sakura could barely keep up. “I will have to restrict what you can speak of and your actions, there are events and certain deaths we cannot save in order for this to be successful. Unfortunately, sacrifices must be made for the better good. Seal!” 

Sakura holds her mouth as she feels something circling on the top of her tongue, stopping and then giving her a brief burning sensation. 

“Ouch!” 

“This will prevent you from changing specific events from happening. I know you are emotionally attached to people who are part of history but it cannot be helped.” He explains. “Kurama will also guide you during this time, as he retains the memory of his Yang half.”

“I will be sending you back, far enough so you can make the necessary changes.” He weaves his next set of signs, his rinnegan spinning. 

“Wait!” Sakura shouts at him. “How far will I be sent back?! The start of the war? The point where Sasuke shows up?”

“Further. Now go young Sakura. This will all be in your hands. I am sorry, this will be the last time you will see me and I wish you the best of luck.” 

A portal appears behind her and she’s pushed back by an invisible force. All she sees is swirling lights until a feeling of numbness takes over, like sleep. 

/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x

When Sakura opens her eyes again, she's back in her room, specifically her childhood room, filled with incredibly girly things. She sits up quickly, running her hands down her body, her head, checking for any wounds but then finds her body reverted back into a 12-year old’s. Her chest is definitely smaller. She feels rested though, not at all like she had just fought for days on end.

“I really…. I really got sent back in time.” She looks at her palm and sees the seal Naruto painted on her hand but in black. 

**_‘You’ll have to find something to cover that.’_ **

The voice startles her and she turns around and finds herself in a wide meadow, shallow water up to her ankles. The amount of flowers around her would make even the Yamanka jealous. She then realises who was speaking to her. She looks up and sees the fox relaxing in the water.

“Kurama…”

**_‘Nice to meet you, kid.’_ **

“Is this the place you and Naruto speak in?” She asks. It’s bright and kind of cheerful, not like the dark, damp place Naruto described to her before.

**_‘No.’_ ** He replies. **_‘The place in which I reside reflects how you perceive me, I’m actually glad you have more imagination than that punk, it was boring in his mind.’_**

“I guess we’re stuck together for a long time huh? We have a good few years until the war.”

The fox nods and holds out his index finger. **_‘I will not be able to give you Chakra until you become used to my presence. My Chakra requires a lot and it will kill you if you aren’t adapted enough. The hosts before me, the Uzumaki clan, have immense chakra reserves. You, however, don't. At least not yet. You will have to work on that Hundred healing technique of yours and learn the arts of a Sage. You will have to be exposed to my chakra slowly, going through what Naruto did, each tail means you’ve gained more of my power until you reach what Naruto did during the war.’_ **

Sakura scratched her head and pouted, much like Shikamaru would. “That's a lot of work. I guess we do have the time. We do have a head start…. Right?”

Kurama shakes his massive head. **_‘No, unfortunately sending you back means you go back to how much chakra you have during this time. You will retain memories of what you have learned, so I guess you do have a headstart when it comes to jutsu.’_ **

Sakura thinks for a while, lost in her own thoughts, coming to terms with the fact that she’ll need to relive a lot of her life again, changing things subtly too. 

“How will I keep the fact that I have you inside me a secret? People will see the red chakra cloak around me when I transform… won’t I go berserk like Naruto did?”

**_‘We will figure it out when the time comes but you will not go berserk. Naruto only did so because I was feeding him anger and hatred, I have none towards you or the rest of the world anymore. You’ll be in full control’_ ** He assured her, Sakura was glad she had someone to talk to. 

“I have one chance at this.” She's back in her bedroom and she checks the calendar beside her bed. It marks the day of meeting her new sensei. Kakashi. “Shit! “ 

She scrambles off the bed to get dressed, she gets frustrated at the long hair and takes a kunai out of her leg pouch to cut it all off, she’ll get her mother or Ino to clean it up later, she doesn’t have the time. Next thing was her outfit, she holds the dress she used to wear up in front of her, she remembers how tight the thing was, restricting her movements. She chucks it over her shoulder and digs further into her wardrobe finding a knee length pair of black shorts and a top similar to her dress’s top half. It will be more comfortable to move in, she doesn’t want to look pretty for Sasuke anymore, that wasn’t the mission. She had more important things to focus on. She finds that her parents weren’t in the house and remembers at this point they were on missions too. So much for having her mum fix her hair. She shakes her hair and ties her headband on top. Sakura also finds the fingerless gloves her father gave her but never used because she deemed them too dull but she could care less now and shoves her hand through them.

“I don’t look too different do I?” She looks at herself in the mirror and she's very different to what she was like before, almost tomyish. 

**_‘You look better like this.’_ **

She blushes and remembers Kurama can see everything through her eyes too. 

She remembers where she's supposed to meet her team for the first time and heads there. Leaping across the house roofs like a trained ninja but forces herself to run like a normal kid on the ground the rest of the way after Kurama convinces her that it will attract unwanted attention to her. 

Sakura is the first one there, like before. She sits down and gazes around her at the people oblivious to the future she saw not even moments ago. She has no time to reminisce when Sasuke joins her. Her breathing stopped momentarily when she saw him, he had died not too long ago and to see him so healthy and so young makes her want to cry. 

Sasuke was fairly confused at her new appearance too, so used to her old one but he doesn’t say a word and keeps to himself a distance away. Sakura doesn’t mind his silences, as long as he was alive, that's all that mattered. She notices she doesn’t blush in his presence like she used to.

Naruto arrives next, his loud obnoxious voice greets them and smiles widely as he sits down on the steps next to her and she's never been more glad to hear him rant on about his morning.

Sakura smiles internally and vows to treat the orange clad kid better during this life.

“Oh! Sakura-chan, you cut your hair!”

Her hand instinctively touches her hair. “Y-yeah, it’s easier this way…” She was not lying, she would’ve cut it during the chunin exams, this was nothing.

“I like it!” He compliments and she smiles back, to which he wasn’t expecting and makes him blush. 

Kakashi is late as always but is all the same, laid back and completely unaware of what secrets Sakura holds. Including the fact that she knows about his sharingan and specifically how he got it. 

When he makes them introduce themselves and their aspirations, Sakura changes hers from the past. 

“Sakura Haruno and I wish to bring peace to the world.” She announces like it was a statement. Not a dream, not some fleeting wish. She wants it to happen, because it will happen, she can’t afford to fail. 

Sasuke and Naruto look at her weirdly, like she was crazy for even thinking such a thing while Kakashi appraises her in a way she knew fondly. He hides it quickly and reverts to his distinct droopy eye. She kept composure and even laughed awkwardly to cover up how serious she was.

“Well now that that's over, I’ll be commencing my test. Meet me at the training field.” The older man is gone in a flash of smoke and Sasuke clicks his tongue but makes his way anyway. Sakura and Naruto follow quietly but the young jinchuriki keeps sneaking glances at her, it makes her wonder if Naruto really does have a crush on her but just as that thought occurs, he asks her a question.

“You seem different Sakura-chan… are you okay?” She knows how she was in the past and is not surprised that people will find her change a little if not, a lot jarring. But she can’t go back to how she was, even for the sake of pretending, she refuses to be that annoying girl she was back then. This was her second chance at life as well as others.

“I’m fine, I just had a really bad dream last night that made me realise I should be kinder to you.” She pats his shoulder. 

**_‘Classic, he’s going to fall for you even more.’_ **

Sakura ignores Kurama’s remark and doesn’t tell him that Naruto’s crush on her was just because he wanted to win against Sasuke, even when it came to girls. Not because he actually liked her. Not that it matters anymore, she no longer had romantic attraction to the Uchiha survivor. Not after the war. Not after all he did. They were both brothers to her, that’s all.

When they get there, Sakura is bombarded with dejavu. Kakashi wastes no time and explains how the bell test works. And like before, Naruto rushes in first but gets countered easily. Sasuke takes over but fails too and Sakura considers playing it like before though this is the perfect opportunity to get used to her old body and a new mindset. 

She dashes forward, an incredible speed that causes Kakashi to close his perverted book and concentrate on dodging her attack. She weaves a horse sign, attacking him with a simple water jutsu, nothing flashy to arouse suspicion. 

“Good Sakura-chan, your jutsu is very cleanly done.” 

Sakura doesn’t take notice of the compliment and keeps the onslaught going, she charges her fist with chakra, at first her body isn’t used to it and she feels a burn going down her arm, though she ignores it and swings her fist anyways. 

Kakashi is still faster and jumps away as she hits the ground beneath him, shattering the earth. The copy cat ninja is shocked, Sakura grimaces at her lack of strength, the crater is nowhere near her weakest back in her home world. She needed to work on her chakra control as soon as possible. However, to Kakashi, this is the first he's seen of such a technique used so brashfully. Nothing in Sakura's file indicated she was this talented or skillful. He considers uncovering his eye for her. 

Sakura swings back around, quick enough to catch him in mid-air, she leaps at him again, this time with the intent of kicking him. They land in a bout of punches and kicks, Sakura tests her body’s usage of taijutsu and it amounts to almost none at all but she adapts quick enough and Kakashi even takes a blow to the shoulder when he underestimates her speed. 

Sasuke and Naruto watch in wonder as they see the pink haired girl go toe to toe with a jounin. Sasuke especially since he was used to the girl following him like a lovesick puppy and barely showed any physical talent besides her above average intellect. 

“Was Sakura-chan always this badass?” Naruto gapes as Sakura smashes the ground again. 

“No idea…” Sasuke whispers, more to himself. To him, it was another obstacle, another goal to become stronger. 

Sakura finally backs off as the body reaches exhaustion. She lets Sasuke and Naruto take over but doesn’t miss the way Kakashi always has his front facing her when he battles the other two. 

“How long will it take for me to reach your first stage?” She asks Kurama in their space. 

**_‘I would estimate 2 months.’_ **

“I’ll have to master the 100 healing seal straight away, I can leave the healing for later, it’ll be too obvious if I use it now.” 

She snaps back to reality and sees Sasuke almost grab onto the bell, she shakes her hands and runs back into the fight. Years fighting with Naruto and Sasuke by her side, she picks up their patterns in no time and syncs up. Punching whenever there was an opening, the three of them take turns reaching for the bell until Sakura and Sasuke yank them cleanly off his belt. Leaving Naruto without one yet again. 

“Yeesh, you guys are energetic.” Kakashi comments, slyly looking at the pink haired konoichi from the corner of his eye. “As I said, the one without the bell will get no lunch. I am the law, when I say you can’t feed him, those are the rules.”

He ties Naruto to a post and casually walks away, saying he’ll be back later but Sakura knows better and knows he’s watching from the tree line. His actual test. 

Before Naruto’s stomach could even growl, Sakura turns around and offers her food to him without a second thought, though Sasuke stops her before she could even reach the chopsticks to his mouth. 

“What are you doing idiot! If you feed him, we’ll all fail!” Sasuke hisses at her, but she doesn’t falter. 

“So? Naruto is hungry, if he’s hungry then he won’t be able to fight properly for the second round.. Plus Kakashi sensei won’t even know, he’s not here to see.” She lies a little. She knows Kakashi can hear them clearly. 

“Our orders were not to feed him! Orders are absolute.” Sasuke tries to counter her. 

For the first time in a while, Sakura glares at the Uchiha genuinely and says it loud and clear. “Those who disobey order are scum. Those who abandon their comrades are more than scum.” Her words rang loudly throughout the empty field. Kakashi freezes where he stands at the words his friend once uttered to him.

Sasuke stares at her, mouth wide open but sighs. He holds out his bento to Naruto and turns his head away. “Fine. Here, eat the stupid thing.”

Sakura smiles and goes to feed Naruto once more but is interrupted by Kakashi’s sudden appearance. This time he doesn pretend to be angry, he just smiles with his uncovered eye and pats Sakura on the head. 

“Well done. You all pass. What Sakura-chan says is right, I don’t tolerate people who abandon their comrades.”

They cheer, well mostly Naruto and Sakura, and they go to Ichiraku to celebrate. 

Kakashi thinks that he's found the perfect team. Weird and unconventional, just like his team once was. He pays more attention to Sakura Haruno now, she seems to be a prodigy, just like Sasuke Uchiha. 

He has a lot on his hands.


	2. Land of the Waves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the positive feedback!

They finish their ramen in top speed, Naruto eating 3 bowls by the time Sakura could even finish one. She found herself tearing up because she had not had the nostalgic ramen since the day she left to fight in the war. Thankfully, her teammates thought it was because the ramen was a little too spicy for her. 

Kakashi leaves them with a bunch of bills and says that he would meet them again tomorrow for their first official mission. Sakura keeps her mouth shut about chasing cats. 

On the way back, not even ten minutes after leaving Ichiraku, they bump into Team 10. Sakura didn’t think they would be seeing so many familiar faces so shortly and suddenly remembers how Ino would remember her. If anyone could catch on to her sudden change in persona, it was her best friend. 

“Oi Forehead!” Ino yells, she looked as pristine as ever. 

**_‘I’ll let you deal with this one on your own, kid.’_ **

Sakura huffed at her companion but nonetheless accepted the fact that not just anyone could handle the Yamanka heiress. 

“Ino.” She greeted her kindly. “Back from BBQ so soon?”

Choji cuts in, “We’re heading to another place to get the best deals! You should join us!”

Sasuke ‘hmnphs’ and walks away, leaving only Naruto and Sakura. 

“Forehead, you’re wearing boyshorts, you know that’s going to make you lose, right?” Ino digs at her and then notices her hair. “My oh my, what happened to your hair! Sasuke likes long hair! Are you throwing on purpose?!”

Sakura narrowed her eyes in confusion before it hit her, she had ended their friendship because of Sasuke. She wants to smack her younger self for being so stupid. This was her chance to mend things with Ino before it was too late. Now that she was too busy for boys.

“Ah… well… I take the challenge back, I don’t care anymore…” She says, lamely. 

Ino stares at her with a blank face, even Shikamaru who usually remains stoic opens his eyes in shock, while Choji keeps munching on his potato chips. Sakura cringes how little her friends thought of her and promises to become a better person, instead of the petty girl she was before. 

“Are you kidding me?” Ino stomps over to her, just a couple of steps away and points accusingly at her. “You’re the one that made a whole big deal about Sasuke and now you suddenly  _ don’t care _ ?!”

Sakura winces and shrugs, “I thought about it and I was wrong, I-I care about our friendship more… not some boy.”

That comment made everyone stop breathing and blink to make sure it was the same Sakura they went to the academy with. This wasn’t the bumbling, flustered, embarrassed Sakura they knew. In fact, Sakura looked so different, and seemed so much more confident. 

Ino couldn’t buy it and Sakura couldn’t blame her. 

“What?! You can’t expect me to believe you! This is some twisted way to one up me pretending you don’t-” She stops when Sakura steps into her personal space, slotting herself so she could hug Ino despite having one arm still out pointing to where she once was. 

“W-w-what are you doing!” The blonde blushes at the sudden physical intimacy, her other hand itching to hug the pink haired girl back but she refused, thinking that this was just Sakura pranking her. They haven’t been this close since… well, since they found out they both liked the same guy.

Sakura wraps her arms around the taller girl tightly. “I’m sorry for everything, I really mean it.” Her voice was muffled by Ino’s shoulder. “Lets be friends again, Ino.”

Ino lowers her arm finally and hugs Sakura back tentatively. “What happened?” Worried, she hasn’t seen Sakura this subdued since she was bullied.

Sakura doesn’t answer, or rather, couldn’t answer. The seal takes away her ability to speak away, no matter how much she wants to say that she’s already lost Ino once, she can’t. She hasn’t lost her yet. She won’t lose her again. 

“Wow, I never thought to see the day you two getting along!” Naruto grinned and rested his hands behind his head. 

**_‘For once I agree with the brat’_ **

They hug until Ino deems it too embarrassing to carry on and gently shoves Sakura away, pretending to wipe something for her nose. Sakura could see Ino’s eyes get a little red. 

“Y-yeah well, I-I give up on Sasuke too!”

“Eh? Didn’t you say you wanted to marry him earlier?” Shikamaru pretends to clean his ear and leans his weight on one leg. “I remember you wanted to dye your hair black for the wedding.”

Ino bristles and smacks Shikamaru around the head, causing him to stumble. “Shut up lazy ass, read the room!”

“You don’t have to do that, Ino. He’ll be lucky to have you.” Sakura says kindly.

“Forget it! H-he's not that handsome anyways!” Yamanaka lies, Sasuke is very handsome. 

Ino thinks that if it meant throwing away a chance to be with someone as handsome and cool as Sasuke for Sakura, then she’ll happily throw away a crush for someone she's cared about for so long. She angrily thinks to herself why it takes Sakura to instigate to repair their friendship, when it could’ve been her back then. Ino knew she could have convinced Sakura to give up on the stupid rivarly thing if she didn’t add fuel to it. Whatever, she has her best friend back.

“Geez sorry! Girls are such a drag…” 

The blonde girl raises her fist again, a vein popping on her forehead and the lazy teammate flinches and holds his hands up in surrender. 

Sakura smiles at the sight, she's happy to be back home again.

Ino turns around and places her hands on her hip. “And you! Next time you decide to chop your hair off, go to someone who actually knows how to! You look like a duck! Come on! I need to fix this.” She drags Sakura by the hand towards her house, Sakura quickly waves over her shoulder at the three boys left behind.

“Naruto! Don’t be late for the mission!” 

/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x

Sakura and Ino are at the back of the Yamanaka Flower shop, Sakura sitting down while Ino is behind her with a pair of scissors, fixing up the back of her poor attempt at a haircut.

When her friend finishes, she puts down the scissors and asks her a question she cannot physically answer. 

“What really happened?” 

Sakura stops breathing and her hands form a fist, clenching her shorts so hard, her knuckles turn white. Her tongue burns again. It doesn’t escape Ino’s notice, after all, she is the daughter of the best TI shinobi in the Leaf village. She guesses Sakura wants to tell her but can’t.

“You can’t tell me?” Ino asks. 

Sakura stays still and silent. Ino takes that as a no. 

Ino sighs and wraps her arms around Sakura’s neck from behind, pressing her cheek down on the top of her friend’s head. 

“I trust you.” Ino feels Sakura loosen up and grip onto her arms. “I’ll figure it out someday. I’m just glad we’re friends again.”

“Me too…” Sakura whispers. 

/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/

She holds up the ninth cat they’ve been assigned to chase down by the scruff. She eyes the feline with annoyance, repeating these low rank missions were one of the worst things she could relive. They were boring and too easy, Kakashi knew that too. Naruto of course takes that problem to Iruka sensei and demands to have them carry out a harder mission. 

The one where it changes everything for Team 7. 

She spends her free time meditating in her room, developing her Hundred Sealing mark, slowly but surely, pouring chakra into it every day. She doesn’t place the mark on her forehead like Lady Tsunade, she instead places it on the back of her neck, people are less likely to look there and she made sure her hair was long enough to hide it. When she's not meditating, she's discussing with Kurama how to prepare her body for his chakra. 

**_‘It will feel like you’re burning from the inside out. You can’t let it consume you either, I may not have any hatred left but it has side effects, it’ll shorten your lifespan if you’re not careful.’_ ** He explains. 

Between training by herself and with her team, she also spends time in the library, reading up on everything that she finds useful about their village’s history and other hidden villages, what happened in the past and what they were up to. 

She has a harder time trying to restrain when training with Kakashi sensei, who constantly pushes her ‘boundaries’ everytime they spar. She forces herself to lose every time but he's never truly satisfied. Sakura knows that he’s caught onto something. 

The day comes when they are given the mission to escort Tazuna to the Land of the Waves. A C-rank mission, harmless and perfect to shut up Naruto’s insistent begging. 

Sakura packs extra kunais and shurikens, paper bombs and an extra medical kit. Kakashi eyes her extra baggage but dismisses it as Sakura being overly precautious. They head off early in the morning and meet Tazuna, who doesn’t make a comment about her not being strong enough this time. The kunoichi glares at the old man as soon as they see each other. 

Sakura keeps her guard up the whole way and senses that they’re being followed. She launches a kunai at one of them, before they could even appear out of the ground, killing them instantly as the blade sinks into their chest. Kakashi follows shortly and eliminates the other one. 

Sasuke and Naruto place themselves beside Tazuna in case there were more. 

Tazuna, comes clean about not being able to afford an A-rank mission and Kakashi is angered but agrees to carry out the mission despite not having the correct ranking of ninja to do so. He places his trust in Sakura, who he thinks is possibly the most talented kid he's ever met, even more so than Sasuke who he once thought was the best out of their generation. He plans to question her soon about how skilled she is, how it doesn’t make sense for Sakura to be so good without training outside of the academy. 

Something is going on with his student, and he’s not sure whether he likes it or not.

They get attacked again when they reach the Land of the Waves, this time by Zabuza, one of the 7 ninja swordsmen of the mist. Kakashi recognises him instantly and orders for the three of them to protect Tazuna at all costs while he fights the swordsman one on one. It’s then when he reveals his sharingan, desperate to win and protect his genin. Sasuke is in shock, seeing one of his clan’s eyes in his sensei’s possession. 

Sakura watches as Naruto and Sasuke rush over to help their sensei when the fight tilts in Zabuza’s favor. It’s like watching her memories in high definition. Sasuke throws Naruto in the form of a giant shuriken, allowing the orange clad boy to land a meaningful blow. This time, she leaves Tazuna’s side and charges her fist with chakra, sprinting over the terrain where they fight. Sakura punches him in the side, hearing a few cracks of ribs before the missing nin is propelled towards a tree, smashing straight through it. 

“Go after him! I’ll help Kakashi sensei!” She orders her teammates and works on freeing Kakashi from the water sphere. She knows she's already screwed this up by helping.

Naruto and Sasuke rush to finish Zabuza off but another force comes and kills him for them, therefore freeing the copy cat ninja from his prison. It was a masked figure, needles in their hair. Sakura wants to stop them from leaving but her body seizes up and she falls down, her body twitches. She supposes this is how the Sage of Six Paths will stop her. A trial and error. She can’t change things. Deaths that she can stop.

“Let me go!” She screams inside at the fox. “I can save Haku!”

**_‘This is how it will be Sakura. Stay strong.’_ ** Kurama watches Sakura tremble in anger, he also wishes he could change things but if this was how his creator wanted things to be, he and Sakura will have to live with it. The guilt of knowledge.

Kakashi and the rest of the team mistakes it as an injury and rushes to help her. She pretends to faint and lets them carry her to Tazuna’s house. She falls asleep on the way.

Kakashi doesn’t wait when she wakes up in a familiar room. Outside, through the window, she can see Sasuke and Naruto training their chakra control through their feet. Failing miserably.

“They’re training, but I’m sure you already know and can walk up trees can’t you?” Kakashi sat beside her futon, arms crossed and studying her expression closely. Thankfully not as injured as he was in her last lifetime. “Answer my questions truthfully.”

Sakura looks back up the ceiling and feels the seal on her tongue ready to stop her. She nods and takes the interrogation in stride. She’ll try to drop as many hints as possible, trusting her sensei is smart enough to read in between the lines. She could choose not to attempt to answer, save herself the pain, but she knows the seal will stop her forcefully if she tries actively to answer. She hopes that her physical reactions will give her Kakashi enough information.

“How do you know how to control chakra so well?”

She clenches up and her hands form claws, baring her teeth as her tongue burns. Her first answer would’ve been Tsunade but it won’t do. 

Kakashi narrows his eyes in suspicion. He moves onto the next question. 

“What is your name? Who are your parents?” 

“Sakura Haruno, daughter of Kizashi and Mebuki Haruno.” She answers easily. 

“How old are you?” 

“Old enough.” Kakashi tenses and moves on.

“Did you know that Zabuza and the assassins would be there?”

Again, she seizes up. Kakashi watches as Sakura’s fists clench the futon covers and quickly moves on, confirming his guess. 

“Did someone put a sealing jutsu, so you can’t talk about certain things?” 

Sakura can’t answer.

“Who is this person?” 

This particular question makes Sakura screw her eyes up and thrash in pain as blood dribbles out her mouth. 

**_‘Why are you doing this? What if he turns the village against you thinking you’re a spy?’_ ** Kurama growls.

“Kakashi sensei is smarter than that.” She says simply. 

Kakashi in the real world ponders for a while before asking his last question. 

“Assuming you’re not lying. Are you the enemy of the Hidden Leaf?” 

“No.” Sakura replies confidently. “I am not.” She sits up and wipes the blood off her face.

Kakashi heaves a heavy sigh and nods, she dusts off her shorts as she gets up. She watches as Sasuke manages to get halfway up the tree before dropping like a dead log. Kakashi pats her shoulder and apologises for the rude awakening and warns her that he’ll have to report this to the Hokage. She doesn’t try to convince him not to. She has Kurama yet to reveal and wonders if she might be hunted when the truth comes out. 

**_‘I hope you don’t regret this’_ **

“It’s better to have someone on your side early, he’ll protect us somehow.”

She spends the rest of the day teaching a jealous Sasuke and a whining Naruto how to walk up trees. Sasuke gets it first, then Naruto later. 

/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x/x

She stands bitterly by the front of the bridge when Sasuke almost dies and Naruto rushes in to save him. Kakashi being beaten already and outside the crystal cage, he watches too as Naruto uses his Kyuubi power for the first time. Kakashi already caught on, he assures her quietly that he’ll explain to the other two when they recover, why she couldn’t help. 

Zabuza dies. So does Haku. 

They return to the village, her sensei and teammates mostly healed and the bridge has been built.

Before Kakashi can sneak off to report the mission and his findings on Sakura, Kurama asks Sakura to swap with him so he and Kakashi could talk. She agrees and asks Kakashi if they could talk in private when Naruto and Sasuke go to the hospital to be checked up. 

They stand on the outskirts of the town, overlooking the village. 

“Sensei, I’ll be swapping so you can have more answers.” 

“Swapping? With who?” 

Sakura closes her eyes as Kurama takes over her body, when she opens her eyes again, its red and pupils turned to slits, her cheek bearing the same whisker-like marks like Naruto has. Kakashi raises his guard and leaps away, drawing out a kunai in front of him. Kurama takes care into suppressing as much chakra as he can so the elite shinobi won’t be alerted by his active presence.

“Who are you?” 

**“I am Kurama. You may know me as the Nine-tailed fox, or at least half of it. My other half is in Naruto Uzumaki. Before you try to kill me, I am talking instead of Sakura because her tongue is sealed. I can talk freely but I can’t tell you a lot of things either.”**

Kakashi raises his headband, revealing his spinning sharingan in case he needed it. “So Sakura is a jinchuuriki?”

Kurama nods and crosses his arms.  **“She is. We were sent here to change some things. If you want the world to be saved, you need to protect our secret until you can’t anymore. That's all I can tell you.”**

The jounin’s mind rushes through every possibility of what the fox means until he comes to a wobbly conclusion, a long shot at best. He relaxes his position but keeps his eyes trained. 

“The future… Are you from the future?”

Kakashi wasn’t expecting a grin in response and the air from his lungs to vanish.  **“Well what do you know, the sensei is smart, Sakura.”**

“You are?! What happens? Does the Leaf fall? How many die? How did you come back? Is Sakura older than she looks?” 

Kurama growls.  **“I can’t answer any of those but just trust Sakura and I to do our thing.”**

Kakashi grabs his head in disbelief. “Y-you. Why are you telling me this?”

Kurama raises his voice.  **“Because the girl is right! We need people to help keep our secret, we know the Hokage trusts you so we’re relying on you to keep him off our backs. There’s a lot we can’t say or do.”**

“So I’ll be left in the dark too?”

The fox sighs and looks down on the village in thought.  **“Maybe when a day comes, I’ll reveal more but until then, yes. All you need to know right now is Sakura and I can handle ourselves. We’re allies of the Leaf, no, the whole world.”**

Kakashi narrows his eyes and then closes them in thought. When they opened, he's in more control of his emotions. “I’ll help keep your secret but if I find that you two are doing something that is sketchy, I won’t hesitate to report.” 

**“That’s fine by us.”**

Kakashi disappears then and Sakura is left alone to contemplate if telling Kakashi was truly the right call but concludes that she had to. Otherwise the whole world would turn against her, while she’s trying to save it. 

/x/x/x/x/x/x/x//x/x/x/x/x/x

A week later.

Sakura is having a sleepover at Ino’s house when she wakes up from a terrifying nightmare...no, a memory of the war. She helplessly stands above the war as everyone is trapped by the infinite tsukuyomi, as she's unable to save her beloved friends and allies. She watches as Ino is trapped, the last time she saw her on the battlefield. 

She wakes up in cold sweat, clutching her chest, heaving as quietly as she can so she doesn’t bother her best friend who was sleeping beside her. But of course, Ino has some kind of sixth sense as she pulls Sakura down by the waist and cuddles up to her. Comforting her. 

“I’ll protect you this time… I’ll save us all.” She whispers. She falls asleep easily in Ino’s arms. 

While she sleeps Kurama forms a training plan so Sakura doesn’t hurt herself while she tries to master his chakra. He also prays that Sakura will be mentally prepared to make sacrifices along their journey and let important events play out again, just like before.

**_‘Old man… This is cruel. Even for me.’_ ** Kurama thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think about Sakura and Kurama's friendship? I think he tolerates her more than he does Naruto lol
> 
> Sakura is going to go through some hard times but at least Kakashi has some sense of what is going on... right?
> 
> Sakura and Ino are friends again, I had to get that stupid rivalry out the way because... well, it was stupid. 
> 
> Important note- Inner Sakura is essentially replaced with Kurama, you'll see why that's important soon.

**Author's Note:**

> So there's the Prologue and Team 7 forms, Kakashi won't be oblivious to Sakura's 'hidden' strength but he'll soon realise it, don't worry. 
> 
> Wood style will come at a later date, Sakura still has to get used to her body and how she will get it will be because of the Sage of Six paths. 
> 
> Here is a fanart I did of the outfit Sakura puts together in the chapter and how she will look with the Kyuubi chakra. Maybe, I'll draw more of the story as it progresses but this fic is a free-time kinda thing  
> https://imgur.com/gallery/50mMdsn


End file.
